TRIGGER WARNING 2:

So yesterday a guy died in his sleep after his birthday party at 34 years old. His family said that he didnt have any pathology and only had anxiety after going to the doctor. Im kinda worried, i went to a doctor and said just anxiety. And the symptoms keep getting worse. I would really appreciate if someone could really help me in soneway and read my reddit posts

One of the biggest things that kept me stuck for years was constantly seeking reassurance and I didn’t even realise it was making things worse.

Every time I felt something off I’d run to someone. A friend, a family member, a professional. And they’d tell me I was fine and for maybe an hour I actually felt fine. Then something else would come up and I’d need to hear it again. And again. And again.

The problem is every time you seek that comfort you’re telling your brain that the threat was real enough to need confirmation. So your brain keeps producing the threat. You’re not calming the anxiety, you’re feeding it.

The loop only broke for me when I stopped seeking that comfort completely. Not reduced it, stopped it. When a worry came up I just sat with it. Didn’t ask anyone, didn’t google, didn’t do anything. Just let it be there.

The first few times were really uncomfortable. But slowly something shifted. My brain started getting the message that these feelings weren’t emergencies. And when it stopped getting the confirmation it was looking for, it stopped sending the alerts as often.

If you’re constantly reaching out to people to tell you you’re okay, I’m not saying those people don’t care. They do. But that comfort is a short term fix that makes the long term worse.

Sit with the discomfort. It’s the only way through it.

I never thought I’d be writing one of these posts but here I am, two years anxiety free and I just want to share what worked for me because I know how dark it can get.

It started when I was 18. I got sick, lost a lot of weight, and one evening I felt something weird in my body and made the mistake of googling it. First result basically told me to call emergency services. I didn’t know what a panic attack was at the time so when one came on I was completely convinced I was going to die. That was the beginning of a really long loop.

For months I didn’t leave the house. I kept going to professionals and people around me hoping they’d tell me I was fine and it would work for like an hour and then something else would come up and the whole thing would start over. I had every test done. Everything came back fine. It still didn’t feel fine. I had no idea what was happening to my life.

I eventually found a therapist who introduced me to CBT and it genuinely helped. I got to a point where I was going to the gym, playing sports, doing things I’d completely stopped doing. But I’d relapse every couple months and each time felt like going back to square one.

Then I started meditating and trying to understand how my mind actually works. Practiced every day and slowly got to a place where thoughts didn’t pull me under the way they used to. Life felt normal again and I honestly thought I was done with it.

Then I moved to the UK for uni.

First six months were completely fine. Then the homesickness hit, the weather, the culture, being away from everyone I knew. I started isolating and hiding it from my friends there. And then it all came back harder than before. I felt completely alone. Eventually I decided to come back home.

Coming home didn’t fix it the way I hoped. I tried forcing myself back into exercise and meditation but it wasn’t working like before, the anxiety was too bad at that point. I got some professional support which helped enough that I could actually function again. But I knew I had to do the real work myself.

I started paying attention to what was actually triggering me. Health stuff on social media was a big one. Any weird sensation and I’d immediately go to google. I always zeroed in on the worst possibility. Running to others for comfort gave me maybe an hour before the whole thing kicked off again.

So I just started cutting things off one by one. Blocked all health content on social media. Stopped googling. Stopped running to people every time I felt off. Went back to meditation even when it felt useless. And I stopped letting every anxious thought drag me somewhere.

The first few weeks were really hard. Every urge to check or search felt overwhelming. But I didn’t give in.

And slowly, without me really noticing, the thoughts stopped having so much hold over me. Not because I beat them but because I stopped feeding them.

Two years later I travel, play football, go to the gym. I do everything I thought was gone from my life.

The thoughts still pop up sometimes. But now I just notice them and keep moving.

If you’re in it right now just know the loop can be broken. Every time you don’t give in to the urge to spiral you’re making it weaker. It’s slow and it’s hard but it works. I’m proof of that.

Happy to answer anything in the comments.

Hi!

I normally don’t suffer from more than the occasional PAC or PVC, but tonight I’ve been experiencing PACs in a trigeminy or quadrigeminy pattern without any concerning shortness of breath, and no acute chest pain. I am experiencing some GERD however, if that’s at all worth mentioning.

It’s odd because I’m really only getting them when I lay down, and they are either much less noticeable or temporarily resolved when I sit up. I don’t drink caffeine or alcohol, but did 90 minutes of brisk incline walking about 3 hours before this all started.

Is this something to be concerned about? Or does this ever happen to others?

Trigger Warning

Jaw-Neck-Back-Back of Arm. four locations that have been bothering me as of recent. I'll be honest I am a side sleeper. I also sleep with my neck crooked if I'm taking a nap and I do have a tendency to have bad posture. But my bright idea was to look up what all four feelings could come from. I see on Google AI, "oh you need to go to the emergency room this is probably a cardiac situation". And now I'm worried that I could be having warnings of a heart attack. And I'm so terrified. I already have come off like all last month I had like really bad anxiety and really bad stress. But I haven't been stressing myself lately at all. I'm 27, I'm a female, I'm less than 130 pounds so I don't understand how I could be having this issue. I got a whole EKG and blood work done literally a month ago and everything came back normal my heart came back normal. But somehow I'm not satisfied and I feel in my body that something's wrong. Could barely go to bed last night because I was so scared about going into a heart attack while I was sleeping. I don't know how to get past this I'm literally terrified, should I go to the ER, do I need to calm down. I have no clue what the hell is going on and I'm literally scared.

34M, moderate smoker.

Since Nov 2025, after taking metoclopramide + fluoxetine, I had what felt like a panic-like episode. Shortly after that, I started developing persistent symptoms that have not fully resolved.

Main symptoms since onset:

• Persistent or recurrent retrosternal constrictive chest pain
• Intermittent “electric shock” sensations in the left chest/retrosternal area
• Tooth/jaw pain with no dental cause found
• Jaw feels mildly tender and produces a dull ache when touched
• Symptoms occur both at rest and during exertion
• Chronic, persistent course without full remission

Medication timeline:

After the initial episode in November 2025, I changed my psychiatric medication from fluoxetine to escitalopram, and was also prescribed a short course of benzodiazepines, as it was suspected that fluoxetine might have been too activating for me.

Following this change, I actually felt noticeably better for about 1–2 weeks.

However, in December 2025, I suddenly developed intense constrictive chest pain, which triggered significant fear and a panic-like reaction. Since then, the chest pressure has persisted as part of the ongoing symptom pattern.

Cardiac workup:

• Resting ECG: normal
• Echocardiogram: normal
• Exercise stress test: excellent performance (117% of predicted workload), no ischemia, no pain reproduction

➡️ Overall, cardiac causes were considered unlikely based on testing.

Gastroenterology workup (endoscopy):

• Grade 1 hiatal hernia
• Distal esophageal erythema (reflux esophagitis)
• Mild chronic gastritis
• H. pylori infection (currently under eradication therapy)

Current issue:

Despite ongoing treatment, I still have persistent chest constriction and jaw/tooth pain, and I’m struggling to understand the cause.

What I’m trying to understand (differential diagnosis considerations):

Given the negative cardiac workup and GI findings, possible considerations I’ve come across include:

• GERD / reflux-related non-cardiac chest pain
• Hiatal hernia–related chest discomfort
• Esophageal hypersensitivity or functional esophageal disorder
• Musculoskeletal chest wall pain (costochondral involvement)
• Neuropathic or referred pain (possible cervicofacial involvement explaining jaw/tooth symptoms)
• Central sensitization or post-anxiety physiological amplification (hypothesis, not diagnosis)

At this point I’m trying to understand what could explain this combination of:

• chest tightness
• jaw/tooth pain
• normal cardiac workup
• mild but present GI findings

Has anyone experienced something similar or has any idea what direction I should explore next?

Someone from my hometown suffered cardiac arrest and thankfully survived because of his girlfriend. The scary part is he is an athlete who play’s basketball that’s 23 so you think this wouldn’t happen due how healthy he is. The family never stated the reason for his arrest, or if they found the case, but he now has a defib implanted.

Stories like these, especially when they are so close to home, Scare me. If this healthy guy can have this happen then what are my odds? I’m 21 but don’t regularly exercise like him.

I seem to be “healthy” for the most part as I don’t have diabetes, high bp, high cholesterol, etc. I have a structurally normal heart with PACs and PVCs. The cardiologist I went to said my heart is fine but when I see people that are supposed to be healthier than me suffer this type of stuff I question if that’s really the case

What causes cardiac arrest? What are the chances of me or you to have one?

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Since November 2024 I was a heavy user of THC and various products ranging from pens, edibles, to actual bud. I was high all day, everyday, 24/7 mostly to numb the pain from my depression and anxiety that’s been crippling my life and progress lately. On top of that I’m already a heavy smoker of nicotine as well.

It all came crashing down on April 27th. I smoked my usual amount but what followed was an insane chest tightness, racing heart, vomiting, and a huge sense of dread that this was it, I was going to die. I immediately rushed myself to a local care physician who said my vitals were fine besides a slight elevated heart rate (sometimes normal after THC consumption), so I went back home fine. Next day I wake up with horrible chest tightness, feeling like I can’t breathe, so I rush myself to the actual ER. My heart rate and pulse was extremely high and I felt the sense of dread and dying again. I was able to get an EKG done which came back perfectly stating my heart was fine. I survived one more day trying to be normal (the symptoms lingered) but found myself in the ER again with the same issues, elevated BP and pulse. I got another EKG and some blood work done that stated once again I am healthy. But these past 2 weeks have felt like a nightmare, my life has been on pause as I’m too scared to go to work, too scared to even shower or eat, all I can think about is my heart pounding and how it feels when I get up and try to be active.

Currently they prescribed me propranolol, hydroxzine, and flouextine to try and help calm my anxiety. I’m still in the early stages though so they haven’t helped me too much yet. My life the past 2 weeks have consisted of fatigue, excessive sweating, nausea, chest tightness, and pounding heartbeats on my chest and stomach (I am underweight for my age though, only 120, due to some other mental health issues, so maybe thats why my heartbeat is so noticeable?). I just don’t know what to do, I know I sound silly but I just wanted to get this off my chest. Should I be concerned or did my green out lead to a severe case of cardiophobia?

I was weakly positive for adenovirus had cold symptoms for 3-4 days mild fever for a day with 37.6 max. Since then my heart rate while resting is normal but as soon as I stand it goes up by 30bpm and sometimes falls down to 110 but still high for me. I wear Apple Watch as I used to workout as well and keep all the data. It goes down to 100-110 while walking but standing still it goes up I’m stressed about this help your lad. Is this pots ?

Hello, after reading most of these threads, I’m glad to see others experiencing what I’m experiencing. Obviously I’m sorry people are going through this but it’s nice to know I’m not alone and people are finding salvation. I feel like I’m only one this is happening to compared to the people around me. I have been dealing with PVCs, palpitations, or flutters for a few years. I have been to a cardiologist where they’ve done multiple EKGs, an echocardiogram, and a 2 week monitor. The echo was normal and the monitor found 37 PVCs, 1477 PACs, 1 couplet and 1 triplet over the 14 days. Since both the PVCs and PACs were under 0.11% they are technically not a burden. For reference I’m a lean 28 year old male.

The problem is they feel like a big burden to me. My health anxiety about this is very very bad. It is all I think about 24/7. During a panic attack I had to have my fiancé call an electrophysiologist for me (cause I was too pathetic to do so myself) because I felt like I needed a 2nd opinion from someone who specializes the electrical activity in a heart so that was scheduled.

Before my appointment with the electrophysiologist, It got to the point where I felt a flutter or PVC every few minutes and I couldn’t lie down so I went to the ER for peace of mind and the EKG came back normal and all they said was everything looks normal there’s not much else we can do for you.

I met with the electrophysiologist and the doctor was awesome and explained everything to me and was not concerned. That gave me a good amount of relief for awhile only to end up spiraling again.

Currently I feel like my PVCs have been increasing in frequency but still not to the amount of being a “medical burden”. However, when I feel one I break down and can’t function. It is all I think about and I create “what if” scenarios in my head like what if the monitor missed something, what if this one felt different, what if the fluttering doesn’t stop and I go into afib? I don’t even know if that’s possible but it’s just how my mind operates. I just started a therapy session to go over this so fingers crossed some progress is being made.

If anyone has any tips, suggestions, comments, concerns, or questions please feel free to let me know. I am looking to break this anxiety loop because I feel like they are the main driver of the flutters.

long story short in October 2025 I had a panic attack after drinking Celsius. I would drink them before with no repercussions but that time it messed me up. Then I had another panic attack or something in November 3rd after drinking coke the day prior. Which led me to the hospital and all sorts of mess like that. My chest has never been the same I’m always in pain and can never do things I like without worrying. My heart rate is also permanently raised. I went to a cardiologist before the November attack and they said I have nothing the er also did a EKG on me on Nov 3rd and they said they found nothing. I’ve been uncomfortable for months and can’t drink caffeine

I finally can say that I have beat this ugly disease for good, ask me anything

• Sleep at least 7.5 hours a night consistently and go to bed around the same time every night
A stable sleep schedule helps regulate cortisol, adrenaline, blood pressure, heart rate, and nervous system recovery. Poor or inconsistent sleep can make you more aware of your heartbeat, increase anxiety sensitivity, and make normal body sensations feel threatening.

• Drink 80–120 oz of water per day
Dehydration can cause dizziness, palpitations, fatigue, headaches, increased heart rate, and anxiety-like symptoms. Staying hydrated helps maintain proper blood volume, circulation, and nervous system function.

• Lift heavy 3–4 times per week and do 30 minutes of intentional cardio daily
Strength training and cardio improve cardiovascular efficiency, circulation, blood pressure, heart recovery, and confidence in physical exertion. Exercise also teaches your brain that an elevated heart rate is normal and not dangerous.

• Eat whole foods and get roughly 0.7–1g of protein per pound of body weight, 150–250g of carbs, and 70–90g of fat
Proper nutrition supports hormone production, blood sugar stability, muscle recovery, brain health, and energy levels. Undereating, nutrient deficiencies, or constant junk food intake can increase fatigue, weakness, anxiety, and physical sensations that fuel cardiophobia.

• Maintain a healthy body weight
Being overweight or severely underweight can place extra stress on the cardiovascular system and nervous system. A healthy weight generally improves energy, sleep, blood pressure, fitness, and overall confidence in your health.

• Keep stress levels as low as possible
Chronic stress keeps the body in a constant fight-or-flight state, increasing adrenaline, muscle tension, chest tightness, heart awareness, and anxious thinking. Lowering stress helps calm the nervous system and reduces hyperfocus on bodily sensations.

• Abstain from alcohol, nicotine, and weed
Alcohol, nicotine, and marijuana can all affect heart rate, blood pressure, adrenaline, sleep quality, and anxiety levels. They can also increase body awareness and trigger panic symptoms, especially in people with cardiophobia.

Ask yourself honestly which areas still need improvement, and if you do that does not mean something is wrong with you. It means there are still lifestyle foundations you can strengthen. These habits create the blueprint for a healthier nervous system, better cardiovascular fitness, and reduced fear surrounding the heart and body sensations.